The Article I Section 4 was drafted by the Framers specifically to grant primary authority to regulate elections to the states, to the state legislatures. It also gave the authority to Congress to act directly, but one entity it didn't give any authority whatsoever to was the President of the United States.
The past month has seen a barrage of election subversion stories that, taken individually, were alarming, but viewed together reveal a deeply disturbing new playbook emanating from the Trump administration ahead of the midterms. On this week's Amicus podcast, Dahlia Lithwick talked with election law gladiator Marc Elias, chair of Elias Law Group and founder of Democracy Docket. Their discussion, edited and condensed for clarity here, highlights a very clear pattern when it comes to Trump and voting: a project that seeks to normalize violence and to test drive the shattering of how elections are typically run. The work of the coming nine months? Keep a close eye on the encroaching lawlessness, don't normalize election subversion, and organize now to protect your friends and neighbors.
For the past several cycles, despite our population's size, economic and cultural importance, and deep diversity, New York's role in picking our nation's presidential nominees has been relegated to the sidelines by a primary date that arrives too late to matter, said Skoufis, whose district is based in Orange County in the northern suburbs. With this bill, our votes will count.
As the tumultuous first year of Donald Trump's second term as president approaches its end, it's difficult to assess his successes and his failures. For one thing, his governing strategy has been all but unprecedented. Most presidents who have just won an election are forced to choose whether they want to cash in their political chips to get big things done or build up political capital for future elections.
Colorado had been selected by the previous Biden administration, which US Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama decried as "political cronyism." Tuberville later told Trump that the headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, would be named the "Donald J. Trump Space Command Center." According to Trump, a "big factor" in the decision was Colorado's support for mail-in voting. "So they have automatically crooked elections," he said, "and we can't have that..."
He's one of scores of lawyers the Trump administration has named in executive actions, joining a list that includes big law firms and attorneys who worked for people Trump considers his opponents. There's no shortage of reasons why Donald Trump would hate Elias and want to shut him down: Elias has for decades represented high-profile Democrats, including the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, and prominent liberal groups, including the Democratic National Committee.
There are not many political insiders like former Governor Andrew Cuomo's long-time friend and election lawyer Martin Connor who are still active in the tumult of New York City politics. At 80, Connor, the former state senate minority leader, has been battling over ballot access for at least 54 years. The breadth of his experience makes him a specialized resource within the city's small bar of election lawyers.
Commissioner Damian Pardo argued that changing to even-year elections is a much-needed reform that will significantly increase voter participation while saving the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For over 100 years, our local elections were held on odd years. What is this all about? It's about state control - the state trying to run our counties, towns, villages, and cities from Albany with one party rule.
